SURELY you’ve trodden
straight
To the very
door!
Surely you
took your fate
Faultlessly. Now it’s too late
To say more.
It is
evident you were right,
That man has a course to
go
A voyage to sail
beyond the charted seas.
You have passed from out of sight
And my
questions blow
Back
from the straight horizon that ends all one
sees.
Now like a
vessel in port
You unlade your riches unto
death,
And glad are
the eager dead to receive you there.
Let the dead
sort
Your cargo out,
breath from breath
Let them disencumber your bounty, let them all
share.
I imagine
dead hands are brighter,
Their fingers in sunset
shine
With jewels of
passion once broken through you as a
prism
Breaks light into jewels; and dead breasts
whiter
For your wrath; and yes, I
opine
They anoint
their brows with your blood, as a perfect
chrism.
On your
body, the beaten anvil,
Was hammered
out
That moon-like
sword the ascendant dead unsheathe
Against us; sword that no man will
Put to
rout;
Sword that
severs the question from us who breathe.
Surely you’ve trodden
straight
To the very door.
You have surely achieved your
fate;
And the
perfect dead are elate
To have won once
more.
Now to the dead you are
giving
Your last allegiance.
But what of us who are
living
And fearful
yet of believing
In your pitiless
legions.